The key to creative living is hidden between the pages of these must-read books.
From the outside looking in, the creative life seems mystical and enchanting. When we look at the lives of great artists, it’s as if their lives were filled to the brim with excitement, adventure, and creation. Galavanting around the world, meeting other interesting people and making masterpieces. Who wouldn’t want to do that?
However, when we talk about creative living, it isn’t just restricted to those who pursue a life in the arts.
In Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic, creative living is defined as the hunt to uncover the jewels that are hidden within you.
These jewels can be anything. From entrepreneurs to stay-at-home parents, anyone can be creative and live creatively. It simply means that you lead your life with curiosity.
While at times living creatively is nothing short of brilliant, at others times it can be daunting and quite frankly terrifying.
The side of creative living that is spoken lesser about is the ever-present notion of fear. It comes into play at each stage of the creative process, and finding the courage it takes to move past it isn’t always easy.
The great thing about embarking on the journey of creative living is that many have come and gone before you. They have felt the struggles that you are feeling, battled their creative demons, and have come out on top. Some, bless their souls, even wrote books to help us learn how to put our curiosities above our fears, and live our creative truth.
Six of those books are particularly good at helping with different stages of the creative path.
From getting started, and trusting in yourself, to learning how to look at the world through a new lens, and learning how to keep going when you feel blocked.
They are books that I turn to time and time again when I need a little boost, or when fear seems to be sneaking to the surface again.
These books hold the wisdom that has been earned and cultivated by those who stepped into the courage to live their truth and live creatively:
The Artist’s Way
Whether you’re already living a creative life, or you’ve always dreamed of it. This book is a must-have for a creative’s bookshelf.
It’s more of a guided journey than anything else. Unlike a traditional book, each of the 12 chapters are meant to be read a week at a time.
Each week has an overarching theme, and tasks to work on. Every chapter builds upon the last, bringing you to uncover your inner truths or your ‘artist’s way’.
You do not have to take my word for how life-changing this book can be. Many great artists, from the likes of Alicia Keys to Helmut Newton, have talked about this book being a pivotal tool for their creative journeys.
The best part is that it’s not a one-and-done type of book. It’s a path that can be taken over and over, always teaching and uncovering something new within you.
Explore the book: The Artist’s Way By Julia Cameron
The War of Art
Procrastination, creative blocks, or whatever name you want to call it — even those of us with the wildest imaginations get stuck sometimes.
It’s a natural part of the creative process, as our deep-rooted fears, our shadows or egos start to surface. Trying to keep us playing safe, or in our comfort zone.
It’s a battle we often have to overcome, learning to side-step the obstacles and live your truth is all part of the adventure.
This book addresses this battle. It is the kick in your butt that you need in order to stop holding yourself back and get creating. It helps you identify and overcome the barriers that can arise, move past resistance, and into creative flow.
The 3 part book is written in an extremely simple and digestible format. It can be read within a couple of days, so you can spend less time reading and more time doing.
This book gave me a burst of energy. It was like a veil was lifted from my eyes. I could see clearly where I was allowing fear to hold me back. Highly recommend reading this anytime you’re feeling stuck or unmotivated.
Explore the book: The War of Art: Break Through the Creative Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
Big Magic
This is the perfect book to read to get the boost of confidence you need to start your creative journey.
Whether that be your first creative endeavor or one hundredth, Big Magic will make any fear you had standing in your way seem downright silly.
Written by the same author of Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert deep dive into the “magic” that is creative living. It’s nothing less than captivating, yet acts as an extremely practical guide at the same time.
Mixed in with her engaging storytelling you get extremely helpful tips and creative career advice.
My favorite takeaway was to not let perfectionism stop you from finishing something. She assures us that many people start things, but that not many finish them, so even if your end product isn’t perfect, it’s still better than most.
Explore the book:Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
Steal Like an Artist
This hand-held guide to creativity in the 21st century dismantles the myth that you need to be “original” to be creative.
The book presents 10 transformative principles that help uncover your artistic side and embrace creative living. The book reads more like a social media feed, filled with quotes and anecdotes.
However simple it may look, it’s filled with golden nuggets of truth. The kind that you most likely know deep down, but need that little nudge of a reminder to start living them.
While the title may suggest that it’s endorsing plagiarism, it’s not.
Rather it expresses that our creations come from our experiences and what we’ve put into our minds thus far in our lives. With that in mind, if you like a specific writer and read lots of his/her work, then chances are your work will show their influence.
The book goes on to explain other truths that will help you think differently about your creative process.
Explore the book: Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
The Creative Habit
We all know that our life is defined by our habits, so how does one make creativity a habit?
In Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit, you’ll learn just that. Her honest and frank outlook gives us a refreshingly straightforward “how-to” guide to cultivating the discipline, preparation, and routine to live a successful creative life.
The book gives 32 exercises, each scattered between chapters, to help cultivate your creative habit. From how to observe the world, to cultivating unique concepts. This book gives you all the necessary tools to take your creativity to the next level through persistence and dedication to the craft.
Explore the book: The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
How to be an Explorer of the World
What’s the key ingredient for living a creative life? Curiosity.
How to be an explorer of the world helps you cultivate your curiosity, and learn to see the world through a new lens. This book is a manual for thinking differently.
Broken down into daily experiments that will help you investigate the world around you. Some of the explorations might seem strange, like picking up a mundane object and giving it a magical power by attaching a story to it, but what it’s helping you do is stretch your imagination and play.
Something that we did very naturally as a child, but as we got older we stopped because it’s not “rational” to think that a pinecone can turn into an invisibility tent. You’ll find yourself thinking more feely after completing all 59 explorations, and you’ll have a journal full of inspiring ideas.
Explore the book: How to be an Explorer of The World by Keri Smith
To recap and summarize:
1. The Artist’s Way: For when you need to uncover or rediscover your creative calling.
2. The War of Art: For when you need a kick in the butt to stop procrastinating and start doing
3. Big Magic: For when you need to find the courage to start or continue creative living
4. Steal Like an Artist: For when you need those little bursts of encouragement and knowledge to spark your inspiration
5. The Creative Habit: For when you need a practical guide for cultivating creativity as a habit in your life
6. How to be an Explorer of the World: When you need to reconnect with your curiosity and see the world around you in a new way
